Why do you believe what you believe?

That's bad behavior and all, but knowing that things can happen in court that would make anybody explode, I'm more concerned about the construction of that courthouse. How does a ceiling fall apart from a kick that's too weak to even damage the drywall at point of impact?

So are you saying that humans are too primitive to be the creation of a divine being?

 

I believe there is no shortage of treatises comparing the christian tradition to other religions and finding numerous similarities suggesting wholesale borrowing by the cobblers of the christian faith. So when you see one thing paralleling another, the first possibility should be plagiarism of myth, not corroboration of actual events.

 

Wrong link. Here is the correct one... I'll agree though that the walls weren't constructed that well.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3684328089209893943

 

Actualy it was not me who said it parraled the bible, I just asked the question LOL and as for the bible "borrowing" I totaly agree and have pointed out that most Christian sites are built upon the remains of those that were there pre Christianity Ie Pagan/Roman/Greek.

I could also ask the question who was born in a stable and visited by three wise men/kings with a star overhead LOL

Anyone read the story of the birth of Mithras? bout a thousand years prior to the birth of Jesus

Yes quite a few of the stories could come from earlier periods of history but that alson does not invalidate them LOL all that says is that people have believed in a God for quite a while longer

Now all that said you keep asking for proof that god exists knowing full well that no matter what anyone writes you will refuse to accept it, knowing full well that without them actualy saying to you here is God say Hello!! they can not give you diffinitive proof that a God exists

Now you are so adament that there is no God can you give me diffinitive proof of this? or is it just conjectior on your part LOL perhaps it might even be a belief that you have

 

Well for the Catholics out there, I've trespassed in god's grandest of earthly homes (St. Peter's) several times. You would think that an atheistic, unrepentant sinner would at least get some reaction out of an all powerful and judgmental being. Arguably, god may have been too busy helping some athlete catch a ball to deal with an enemy agent in his living room.

We can disprove an active, kind, worthy god just by following the news. The world's a flaming mess. Every manner of transgression of god's commandments occurs without a single instance of overt response. A god who doesn't take an active role in the world provides us no evidence for his existence, and no reason to praise him. In fact, if there is a god, we should hate him for the mess he allows.

If there's more than one god out there, I vote for a cage match between them on SpikeTV to settle this nonsense.

 

If you read the old testiment you will see that it is a God of wrath and not the cuddly wuddley kind, also I do believe that he banished the Angel Lucifer to the Earth Therby making this his domain, so watching the news might just confirm that

 

Lucifer isn't Satan, actually he was a King mentioned once in Isaiah I believe. (I'll expound more on some other comments next week, will be gone for a bit, so till then...)

Phoenix

 

Lucifer also known as the Light Bringer or Morning Star became confused with Satan thanks to Dante's Inferno and Miltons Paradise Lost LOL Satan is also a very old name, used by some to mean Angel and by others to mean Dijinn or demon

 

I can't even imagine what it's like to take such a story seriously.

 

Once again you make assumptions, I dont believe that I have said I take it seriously nor have I said that I discount it
You are the one who brought up the news as a means of dissproving God's existance I mearly shot that down after all if this is Lucifers home turf!!
Also why do you seem to think that God would be worried about you entering one of his places of worship? I do it all the time, I love visiting Cathedrals, and have even had the pleasure of visiting a synagog and a Mosque or two in my time but I do not follow any of those religions LOL
Do you believe in Evil & Good?

 

yeah, if god struck you down for not believing and entering a church I would have been dead at my sisters wedding, my trip to the Vatican, and all the other lovely old churches I visited in Europe. Christian themed art work is outstanding...while I realize there was a time in which that was pretty much all you were allowed to paint, or you painted what you were told by your patron, all the same some of the greatest artists in history were no doubt inspired and produced some of the greatest artwork known to man with Christian themes. Not to mention the outstanding Islamic designs in places like the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed), Grand Mosque of Damascus or the dome of the Selimiye Mosque.

Religion is as old and most likely older than art and it is a big part of art history which predates civilization. One of the earliest works of art are in Caves in France...At the time people thought depictions of things also held the essence of that thing you depicted. People would draw bison on the walls then stab and throw spears at them. Historians believe that this was not just target practice but the act was believed to transferred power over the creature to the hunters looking for an edge. This is evidence of the belief in spiritualism. Because of this, it is not hard to imagine why depictions of humans on these walls are generic stick figures if depicting a specific human might allow you to exercise power over that person. It wasn't the inability to depict things more realistic as many of the bison and animal drawings are rather detailed an well done.

In one cave there is a hybrid stag / human often referred to as the shaman or horned god. The hybrid stag / human on the wall is unique as it is a bit more than just a stick figure. Historian believe it can only be one of two things...a depiction of a shaman or a depiction of an actual hybrid god of some kind (nature related)...either way this is also evidence that even before a written language and civilization humans had already established a belief in spirits and possibly gods.

To me, if one studies history one can actually see religion develop as a creation of man and as man develops and advances, so do the gods they worship. Its very evident to me that at one time humanity did little but day to day survival and life was very hard. Humans had no control over his surroundings, fires, rain, the river floods, the animals, etc..They didnt know why it flooded, why it rained, why the sun was there....they didn't have time to figure it out so they simply attributed these things to gods, and not surprising these gods, on the whole, took human / animal forms.
As humans advanced we started figuring out these things (much much later on) and we no longer needed the river god, the sun god and the like...so what we have left is a god / gods that explain those things we still don't know the answer to (like what happens after we die?) or god can always be attributed as that which brought all those things about in creation.

To me it seems like god is and always has been a way to ease our mind about things we cant explain or that we might fear....like death. We don't want to think that we will just stop existing when we die...certainly there must be something after death, we can just stop existing!!! It almost seems a bit egotistical to me to think we will exist forever.

 

Once again, very well put drusus....

....not only that, has any of the christains on here ever relized that every race had a different god until you guys started forcing people to believe?

stainless

 

So did most of the other older religions Stainless

 

yeah, most religions forced people to worship...Christians and Muslims are just the most recent, and most successful examples. That was a big problem between the Jews and Romans...Many ancient peoples didnt care, they could worship both the emperor and their own gods without any trouble...they already worship 10 gods, whats one more...The Jews (and Christians) refused to worship anything but one god which led to conflict. In ancient civilization, you simply didnt have a choice at all.

Islam spread by the sword and once Christianity was adopted by governments with armies, it also spread by the sword....is wasn't long until the two clashed.

 

Or perhaps the historians should consider the distinct possibility that this "hybrid stag" is merely an early qualifier for this website:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule

 

I would be inspired by some fat cash from the church coffers to produce some fine art too! Dare we wonder whether the religious art from the period is actually so great intrinsically, or merely considered so based upon the manner in which it was presented to us? Sure, there were some immense technical skills displayed by the greats, but they could have probably painted me changing a tire in an equally compelling manner.

 

"They" are trying to tell me how to live, want me to spend my time and money on being a church member, and want me to further support them financially by taking up their share of the tax burden. So yeah, I want the kind of evidence only a real god can provide before I'm buying into the story.

Why is it too much to ask for a god to clearly make himself known? Does he really think we should take the ancient scribbles of undereducated primitives to be lasting and convincing evidence to all future generations that an omniscient and omnipotent force exists? It's patently ridiculous. Put up or shut up is the yardstick for god.

So, now what's he gonna do? Give me a run of bad luck at the soda machine? Erase my name from the Jehovah Witness Do Not Knock List? Without a humble believer at my side to interpret common everyday occurences, I might never be able to discern god in action.

(This post fades from a response to you, De Orc, into a general rant, please don't take my post personally)

 

As I recall, god 1.0 was notoriously jealous and insecure, a cloud-riding pre-Napoleon of sorts. Certainly one who was so quick to damn and smite whole cities might have it in him to flick the ear of a contemptuous atheist who dares desecrate his foyer?

I don't believe in Evil as a force, the kind of Force that powers the Eye of Sauron and other such supernatural manifestations of wild hatred.

 

I don't know if my belief actually has a name but this is the jist of it. There are 2 things in the universe matter and energy right? well I think that all matter is merely energy resonating at a lower frequency and thus able to form bonds creating matter itself. This matter (quarks) form bonds to build neutrons and protons that make up atoms and atoms make up compounds, compounds combine to make proteins and proteins are the basis for life on this planet. Thus energy is the creator of life (here) when you break everything down. It exists in waves we can detect but purhaps it has a higher state of being ( much like matter has 3 forms solid,liquid,gas) and we are only away of two thus far the solid state (matter) liquid (enegry) and ?? lol hopefully that makes sense. (also any proof that its wrong with actual evidence using math or science will help reshape this theory)